Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio

Alister Spence Trio
Gather
Alister Spence Music ASM 016

Part of a mutual admiration society that goes back to 2008, Australian pianist Alister Spence and Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii have worked together as a duo, as well as part of one of her many combos and orchestras. These fine discs however feature the two separately involved in the classic Jazz piano trio. Both, who also play with many notable international improvisers, organized these threesomes with equivalently worldly musicians who hail from their native countries.

On Gather Spence’s associates are bassist Lloyd Swanton, known for his membership in The Necks, and Toby Hall, playing drums and glockenspiel, who experience includes gigs with Mike Nock among many other Antipodeans. Fujii’s Dream team is filled out by bassist Takashi Sugawa, part of the Michiyo Yagi trio and numerous other configurations and drummer Ittetsu Takemura who works in Sadao Watanabe bands. The main division between the Spence set and the Fujii formula is that his eight tracks are bursting with insistent energy, while her five tunes are mostly considered and constant.

From the beginning the Aussie crew sets up dynamic synergy with cross pulsed keyboard syncopation both as ostinato and to outline themes with prestissimo piano and piano samples textures  widely joined by string strums and thumps plus emphasized cymbal cracks and emphasized ruffs. Stop time during certain sequences as drum press rolls and rumbles expand the expositions along with solid bass stops. Spence’s emphasized notes and ringing tones have swing as a default. Meanwhile, during broken octave explorations, the piano and bass or bass and drums often operate as tandem mirror images of each other’s improvisations.

This is particularly clear on a track like “Falling From the Top of the Sky” where the suspended time feel starts off with restrained drum kit lug loosening, cymbal reverberations and rhythmic crackles only to surge to an accelerated groove as outlined piano patterns. Subsequently a swelling double bass lines emphasizes ascending dynamics until a relaxed keyboard motif neatly ties the improvisations back onto the piece’s relaxed first section.

Performance inspiration even makes a virtue out of slowness as on the balladic “Homeland”. Spence’s adagio paced measure are backed by feather light glockenspiel pings and rattles until a solemn piano-bass interludes presages Swanton’s relaxed string coda.

The low-pressure expositions that make up part of the Spence trio’s program are emphasized during the Fujii trio’s disc. Notably though, alongside the pianist’s pivots from contemplation to cascades, unlike bass and drum strategies on the other disc, the bassist plays arco as often as pizzicato, while the drummer has leeway for unmetered probes. In fact, during the concluding multi tempo “Aruku”, besides the pianist’s melody elaboration and the bassist’s arco slides, Takemura explodes into a midpoint interlude of drum patterning, with clanks, smacks and pressure plus cymbal splashes upfront.

Otherwise the mood is more restrained with Fujii often digging for bottom notes, creating quieter celesta-like plinks, slithering down the keyboard, and sometimes cannily emphasizing certain tunes’ main narratives midway into the track. Tempo ambiguity means that the architecture of a track could move from gentle to threatening and back again, then onto swing. The discursions and  returns on a piece like “Summer Day” also give Sugawa a showpiece that wraps squeaky arco sprawls, buzzes and sudden stops into recurring motifs.

Stretched, metallic and ping-ponging from muted to vivid sound colors, the nearly 19-minute title track is the most extended variant of the trio’s distinctive strategy. Moving from stretched piano strings, drum rim clacks and bass string drones, the three supplely move up the scale paced by emphasized keyboard sweeps that turn to exposition alternately percussive and distant. Tough drumming and low-pitched bass sweeps introduce outlined piano key stabs which affiliate single note stresses into decided linear motion by the conclusion.

Singly and together Fujii and Spence have demonstrated their skills in varied configurations. These sets clearly demonstrate how they each individually and impressively manipulate the piano trio ethos.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Gather: 1. The Gathering 2. Homeland Introduction 3. Homeland 4. Crossed Over 5. Beginning of the End of the Beginning 6. Falling From the Top of the Sky 7. Moment Between 8. Antidote For Lean Times

Personnel: Gather: Alister Spence (piano and samples); Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Toby Hall (drums and glockenspiel)

Track Listing: Dream: 1. Second Step 2. Dream A Dream 3. Summer Day 4. Rain Drop 5. Aruku

Personnel: Dream: Satoko Fujii (piano); Takashi Sugawa (bass) and Ittetsu Takemura (drums)